After posting the final introductory column last week, my fingers trembled with the slightest bit of trepidation as they hovered above the ‘Enter’ key and I wrestled internally with the decision to inundate this site to as many social mediums as my limited technological knowledge would allow.
Besides my weekly Twitter posts letting my few, scant followers know when a new article was uploaded (my tweets will increase in frequency as I move forward in this journey), I purposely kept this website quiet, only allowing people who stumbled upon it randomly to check out my quest to play professional baseball.
I figured it made the most sense to wait until this journey was explained in its entirety to let the majority of my friends and acquaintances (and hopefully their friends and acquaintances) know what my plan is for next summer. So, there I was last Wednesday afternoon, with a number of mass emails and a Facebook wall post just ready to be unleashed to the online world.
I took a deep breath, hit send and waited for the reaction. Would I be laughed at? Ridiculed? Told that my dream is a terrible waste of time, money and resources?
The response was overwhelmingly positive.
A great number of people wished me luck on my quest and expressed admiration for me trying to follow my dreams. Not only that, but there were quite a few of my friends, some of whom I haven’t spoken to in months, offering to help out with my training, to catch some of my bullpens, and just imploring me to not give up on this journey.
Here are some quick excerpts from just some of the messages that I’ve received (and that I’ll be referring to for positive reinforcement on those days when I don’t feel like training or this all just seems like a silly pipe dream):
- I know you have the potential to do the same you did in GTBL in an independent league. Good luck big guy, hope next time I talk to you, you’re playing some serious ball. Take care, and stay in touch, looking forward to hearing the good news.
- That's awesome that you’re doing that. Been there in the past and know that desire to at least say you tried. If I can help with anything through the winter let me know. If I don't see you good luck.
- Glad to hear that you are giving it a shot, that way you will have no regrets. If you are looking for a place to throw in February you are more then welcome to come out to our indoors in order to get some work in. Good luck.
- Buddy, I know you got the stuff and being a lefty you'll get ‘er done!!
- I will gladly do whatever I can to help. You want someone to stand and tape your pitches, run around and gather up the balls when you’re done, get you an ice pack for your arm or stand and cheer you on as you practise/workout just say the word and I am there.
- Looks great and I really look forward to following it! As I'm sure you know, you're actually doing something that many of us considered at some point in our lives. Living so that you have no regrets later on is a very good way to go about life I think. I don't have a doubt in the world that you will get some very serious looks from teams.
- Literally the most inspiring thing I have ever read buddy
- Bottom line: keep the dream alive. I believe in you.
I cannot thank everyone enough for taking the time to send me their kind words. It means a lot knowing that I have so much support and the messages has served to further catalyze my drive to make this dream come to fruition.
Also, I have a friend of a friend (a person I’ve only met twice) who played Division I baseball down south and has a couple of friends who have played independent league ball in years past. He’s read the articles and basically become my conduit between these guys peppering them with questions I have about the tryout process, living situation etc. His assistance has been immeasurable thus far.
Lastly, there is one person who deserves special recognition for doing the lion’s share of the research needed to make this journey possible. She did the majority of it without my knowledge and fully immersed herself into the wonderful world of independent league baseball (from now on, she’ll just be referred to by the initials SB, as she abhors the limelight). SB has basically become my de facto business manager and has saved me hours of research by cataloguing the contact, roster and league information for every team on my tryout radar this spring.
All of this material is stored in a document unofficially dubbed my ‘Independent League Bible’. Literally everything I need to map out this quest can be found in this file. It’s a fantastic piece of work.
My indoor throwing sessions and workouts have being going extremely well (more to come on those in the coming weeks), my support system is in place, the information I need is at my fingertips, all that’s left is to contact the teams and leagues to let them know that I am out there and that all I need is a chance to prove myself.
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